I Survived, So Where Are My Powers?

My celebration in the dungeon was short-lived.

I woke up in my room like nothing had happened, which was honestly the most insulting part.

Same ceiling.

Same crack near the light fixture that I kept telling myself I would “eventually” fix, and the same faint smell of laundry that had been forgotten in the basket for at least two weeks.

My phone lay on the desk in its original position, my PC innocently humming in the corner as if it hadn’t teleported me into a dungeon designed by an anonymous sadist.

Even thinking about it made my head hurt.

‘When I catch you, you little f*cker, I’ll make sure to zap you with a taser ten million times!’

For a full ten seconds, I just stared, imagining the face of the anonymous veteran being battered in a mix of different ways.

Even that wasn’t enough, so I started drawing simulations of “accidents” happening to this mysterious figure.

Death by truck.

Death by getting hit by a truck that was reversing.

Death by opening your front door and falling into a massive hole.

Death by doing absolutely nothing.

Death by slipping on a freshly mopped floor.

Death by slipping on a floor that wasn’t mopped.

Death by isekai.

It was only after artistically drawing all these scenarios that my mind started calming down a bit, allowing me to think about more pressing matters.

“I’m alive.”

I looked down at my hands as if they’d changed while I was gone.

I still had ten fingers.

My skin was not scorched, which was a good sign, and the injuries from the dungeon were completely gone.

Just to make sure, I spun my arm in a circle. No motion problems. Good.

It was good that I wasn’t injured, but where were my powers?

Like glowing runes or ominous black veins. I had no mystical mark that screamed Chosen One.

‘I guess I’ll test it out in a second. I’m sure I got something.’

I swung my legs off the bed and stood.

I had survived an S-rated trial. Surely I had awakened something. Surely, right?

As a man who’d just escaped death’s embrace by a strand, I did what any rational adult man would do in that moment and started dancing.

It was the kind of dance you do when you’ve escaped a hellish scenario and your body needs to discharge the adrenaline of, I don’t know… erm, being alive.

A chaotic combination of fist pumps, foot shuffles, and a little spin that nearly made me crash into my desk.

“I SURVIVED!” I yelled, pointing at myself like I was a celebrity. “I survived, I survived, I survived!”

I did another spin.

My bedsheet flapped dramatically.

It was honestly a vibe.

Then I stopped mid-dance and froze.

Wait.

I needed to double-check for my awakening. I couldn’t lose track of my priorities.

A grin stretched across my face.

This was it. This was the part where the universe finally apologised for everything.

I held up my hand like I had seen a thousand hunters do on screen, palm facing outward, fingers slightly curled.

“Okay,” I muttered. “Basic test.”

I cleared my throat like I was about to deliver a spell in a fantasy show.

“Web.”

Nothing happened.

I stared at my palm.

“Web,” I repeated, louder. “Web!”

Still nothing.

I frowned.

“Okay, maybe it’s not Spider-Man,” I said, because obviously the universe had multiple options available and needed my input.

“That’s fine. That’s fine. We can work with other stuff.”

I pointed at my bedside lamp.

“Fireball.”

Nothing.

I pointed at the same lamp again, because repetition always intimidates reality.

“Fireball,” I said, slower this time, as if the lamp had hearing difficulties.

Nothing.

I stared at the lamp.

The lamp stared back, smug and unlit.

“Fine,” I muttered. “Lightning. Since, you know. The whole nearly dying thing. That felt… kind of zappy.”

I raised my hand again and tried to channel every dramatic moment from hunter footage.

“Thunderbolt.”

Nothing.

“Keiko, use Thunderbolt!”

I wiggled my fingers.

Nothing.

I tried again, this time with more anger.

“THUNDERRRRRRRRRRR BOLT!”

Nothing.

I stood there for a full five seconds, hand out, like an idiot trying to high-five the air.

Then I lowered my arm slowly towards my chin, rubbing my non-existent beard.

Awakened individuals usually instinctively knew what their powers were. It would be hinted to them like a vision.

They’d understand their natural proclivities, what they were supposed to be able to do, how it worked, and all the good stuff.

But right now, I was throwing darts at a board. I had no clue whatsoever what my powers should be.

‘Surely I have awakened, no?’

“…Okay,” I said, forcing a laugh. “Maybe it’s subtle.”

I looked towards my phone on the desk and tried the classic telekinesis test, because if I had learned anything from movies, it was that telekinesis always starts with small objects.

I stared at my phone on the desk like I was trying to intimidate it into moving.

“Come to me,” I whispered.

The phone stayed still.

I narrowed my eyes and stared harder.

“ARISE!”

The phone stayed still.

I walked over to the desk, picked it up with my other hand, and put it back down just to make sure it was not glued to the desk by some invisible force.

It was not, and with that, my smile faded and my stomach tightened.

Moving towards my wardrobe mirror, I leaned in close, searching for glowing irises, unnatural pupils, a random symbol on my forehead—anything that was different.

I looked exactly the same.

If anything, I looked worse, like someone who had just run for their life and then immediately decided to do cardio in celebration.

I tried again, more desperately this time.

“Fireball. Lightning. Wind. Ice. Shadow. Heal. Shield. Summon. Anything. Literally anything.”

Nothing.

‘Wait, have I just been scammed?’

The system had clearly told me “Trial Cleared.”

So where was it? Where was the part where I got rewarded?

“Where is my REWARDDDDDDD!”

I laughed again, but it came out wrong.

“AHA. AHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

It sounded like someone trying not to cry.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, my voice rising.

“You’ve got to be joking. I don’t even care what power it is, just give me something!”

I looked at the ceiling as if the universe lived up there and I could glare it into feeling guilty.

“Do you know what I just did?” I snapped.

“I outsmarted an S-rated dungeon. I dealt with a land eel with no powers. No weapon. No abilities. Just legs and trauma. What more do you want from me?”

Nothing answered.

Of course nothing answered.

I paced the room, hands tangled in my hair, my breath coming fast again.

“This is so stupid,” I muttered.

“This is so unbelievably stupid. Everyone else gets powers from a clean little awakening test in a nice, safe facility with a professional smiling at them, and I get hunted like prey in a cave and I still come back empty-handed?”

I stopped and stared at my own reflection in the mirror.

“I would trade anything,” I said, my voice low and raw. “Anything. If I could just awaken like everyone else. If I could just—”

I let out a frustrated breath and waved my hands like I was trying to physically shoo my bad luck away.

“Hell,” I muttered. “If I woke up as a woman tomorrow and I had superpowers, I wouldn’t even care. I’d take it. I’d take it instantly.”

The adrenaline finally ran out, leaving only exhaustion behind as I walked back to my computer desk, my thoughts in a mess.

If the awakening process wasn’t going to acknowledge me, then at the very least the internet would.

I logged onto the Hunter Forum using my anonymous account, alt-chan, the one with a deliberately stupid username and zero profile picture.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard for half a second before adrenaline and spite made the decision for me.

[New Post – General Dungeon Discussion]

Title: Just survived a land eel with no superpowers.

So yeah. Got sucked into a dungeon. No awakening. No weapons. No backup. Just me and my legs. Land eel showed up. S-tier nightmare fuel. Still alive.

Crazy, right?

Honestly, I think I’m just built different. Probably awakened now. Can’t wait to find out what my powers are.

Genius behaviour, if you ask me.

I hit post and leaned back, smiling to myself.

For three seconds, there was silence.

Then the replies started coming in.

Fast.

Very fast.

User_StormBlade: Sure you did. And I soloed a dragon with a spoon.
User_GateWatch: Mods, can we start banning people who post fanfiction?
User_RealHunter: Land eels aren’t even real in solo instances. Nice try.
User_NoAwakeningNoOpinion: Why are people always laughing on this forum? This is serious business.
User_GrimRank: Another attention-seeking newbie. Touch grass.

My smile twitched.

More replies piled on.

User_SRankMyFoot: If you survived a land eel unawakened, you’d be dead already.
User_ActualVeteran: Stop spreading nonsense. This kind of post gets people killed.
User_ForumMod: Thread reported.

I stared at the screen, jaw slack.

“…I’m not lying,” I muttered.

My fingers flew over the keyboard.

I’m literally telling the truth. It happened. I ran. It smashed into walls. The ceiling collapsed. I survived. How is that so hard to believe??

I hit post again.

The responses got worse.

User_StormBlade: Wow, doubling down. Impressive.
User_GateWatch: This is why we need IQ requirements for the forum.
User_NoAwakeningNoOpinion: Please stop posting.

Something inside me snapped.

“I HATE ALL OF YOU,” I yelled, slamming my hands onto the keyboard hard enough that the screen shook.

“I HOPE YOU GET CHASED BY A LAND EEL AND IT LEARNS TO TURN.”

I mashed the logout button like it had personally offended me and rose from the chair.

My chest rose and fell rapidly as the adrenaline finally drained out of me, leaving only exhaustion and frustration behind.

“Whatever,” I muttered. “When I wake up with powers, I’ll show them.”

The next moment, I was on my bed, and then everything went dark.